Bully victimization, depression, and the role of protective factors among college LGBTQ students

Abstract

This study surveyed 347 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning college students from across the United States concerning their bully victimization, depressive symptoms, and sources of support. Participants responded to an online survey that asked them about their victimization experiences during the 3 months prior to the survey. The results indicate that four types of bully victimization (verbal, relational, cyber, and physical) occur during the college years, and that victimization relates positively to depressive symptomatology in sexual minority college students. The 4 forms of bullying did not relate to depression in the same manner for each of the 5 sexual minority subgroups. Peer support, but not family and campus support, provided a buffer against depression for lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. This study involved a sample exclusively comprising sexual minority college students, and the findings show the need for colleges to address bully victimization and its effects in this population.

Hope as a Mediator of Bullying Involvement and Emotional Difficulties in Children

“…Studies have begun to highlight the fact that despite initial challenges, not all victims of bullying develop mental health problems (Baker & Bugay, 2011), prompting researchers to investigate potential protective factors that could alleviate the negative effects of bullying involvement on emotional difficulties. Previous studies have demonstrated the role of peer, school, and family support (Moran, Chen, & Tryon, 2018), but little research has explored the role of individual psychological mechanisms in response to bullying involvement (Cassidy, McLaughlin, & McDowell, 2014). Given the current reality that victimization appears inevitable for some children (Egan & Todorov, 2009), counselors should have a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of how individual protective factors could mitigate the negative influences of bullying involvement.…”

Exploration of the experiences of sexual and gender minority students in school psychology programs.

“…Due to the diversity of sexual and gender identities (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning, pansexual, fluid) among our SGM graduate students and the small number of participants in each identity subgroup, we were unable to conduct meaningful statistical analysis to examine whether subgroup membership affects SGM students' experiences in school psychology graduate programs. Future research should consider examining the role of subgroup membership in LGBTQ students' experiences in school psychology programs, because research has suggested that members of sexual and gender minorities may experience challenges that are unique to their subgroup identities (e.g., Moran et al, 2018). We acknowledge that there was no transgender participant in our SGM sample.…”

“It’s Not Okay for You to Call Me That”: How Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Cope with Bullying Victimization

“…We defined bullying victimization experiences as being the victim of physical or verbal attacks, being excluded from activities, or spreading rumors, with any of these experiences occurring either online or in person (Moran, Chen, & Tryon, 2018).…”